January 29, 2012:  Ten Signs That Life Is Good

All of these came from this week. 

1) Mitch Daniels gave a tempered Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union Address.  For once, we get politics that aren't about extremes and attacks.

2) Facing a personal meltdown trying to get my son's X-box Live set up, I actually receive a X-box representative on the phone within a minute, who gives me old-fashioned personal and delightful service.  I really wish I had jotted her name down.

3) I carry one mortgage again.

4) Last week (January 23, to be exact) was National Reading Day.  I finished a marvelous memoir by Danny Goldberg about his career within the music business:  Bumping Into Genuises.  Loved the chapter on signing Warren Zevon to his final record deal.

5) Speaking of Zevon, I had a "Lawyers, Guns and Money" reference come out of nowhere at work, and it wasn't in relation to a potential lawsuit!

6) While this was announced in December, I didn't learn of it until last week, but MIT has launched an online learning initiative with "online tools freely available."  I'll repeat what I have said before in many other places, online education is here and it is the innovative institutions that will develop a strategic plan for online learning that will thrive. 

7) At the risk of revealing too much nerdiness or geekness, I discovered this week the joys of online gaming with my two (pretty much) lifelong friends.  I'm sure our wives are already lamenting this online initiative.

8) Jerry Garcia ties were $6 at J.C. Penney this week.  Poor Jerry.  Happy David.

9) Volunteers in Cape Cod helped save 35 beached dolphins.  It seems like such a small number, especially when it sounds like about 50 died, but to me the dolphin always symbolizes something more about humanity:  their playfulness, their intelligence, their grace. 

10) Now that my son has x-box live (see #2 above), I don't have to fight for computer time anymore.  Of course, I have to hear the constant jabbering and screaming from the other room, but there is only SO MUCH good stuff that could happen this week.